Ironsi who gave us the decree that introduced unitary govt.

YelloweWest:
what people brought the string centre?

Seven killed in Cameroon as anglophones declare ‘independence’
Published October 2, 2017
President Paul Biya of Cameroon

At least seven people were killed in Cameroon’s restive anglophone belt at the weekend as a separatist group made a symbolic declaration of independence.

The separatists chose October 1, the anniversary of the official reunification of the anglophone and francophone parts of Cameroon, to declare independence for “Ambazonia”, the name of the state they want to create.

Since November, the anglophone minority has been protesting against perceived discrimination.

The government deployed security forces at the weekend in English-speaking regions, notably Buea in the southwest and Bamenda, the main town in the northwest and a hub of anglophone agitation.

Several people were admitted to hospital in Bamenda Sunday after clashes between demonstrators and police, according to a medical source.

“At least one person was injured by live fire” in Bamenda, where the situation was “very tense”, a source close to the local authorities told AFP.

The “security forces had to resort to tear gas and sometimes to shots to disperse the protesters”, the source said by telephone.

Bamenda residents contacted by AFP reported “shooting” by the security forces without giving further details.
– ‘Real bullets’ –

One of the leaders of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), Joshua Osih, told AFP the security forces were “firing real bullets at the protesters” but stressed that he was not a supporter of the secessionist movement.

In Ndop, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Bamenda, two people were “shot dead”, according to sources, while one was killed in Kumbo on the sidelines of the protests, city mayor Donatus Njong said.

Also in Kumbo, three prison inmates were shot and killed trying to escape while security forces were mobilised for the deployments in anglophone regions, a source close to regional authorities said.

A young man was shot dead by security forces on Saturday in the southwest town of Kumba, known as a rebellious city since the start of the protests, sparking clashes between security forces and the local population.

“They fired at him during a security operation,” a nurse who requested anonymity told AFP. The incident was confirmed by a security source and several local residents contacted by phone.

Cameroon’s long-serving president, 84-year-old Paul Biya, took to social media Sunday to condemn “all acts of violence, no matter where they come from or who is responsible.”

The European Union called on all sides to be responsible and “respect the rule of law and avoid any act of violence.”

The crisis provoked by the protests, which was exacerbated at the start of 2017 when internet access was cut for three months, has intensified in recent weeks with the push to symbolically proclaim independence of the English-speaking regions.

On September 22, “between 30 and 80,000” people demonstrated across Cameroon’s anglophone regions, according to estimates by the International Crisis Group (ICG).
– ‘No longer slaves’ –

The symbolic declaration of independence was made Sunday on social media by Sisiku Ayuk, who describes himself as the “president” of Ambazonia.

“We are no longer slaves of Cameroon,” he said.

“Today we affirm the autonomy of our heritage and our territory.”

Ahead of the declaration, Cameroonian authorities announced a temporary curb on travel and public meetings across the Southwest Region, adding to a curfew in the neighbouring Northwest Region, also English-speaking.

Internet access has been disrupted since Friday, according to an AFP journalist, despite government assurances that there would be no cutting of access in the anglophone areas.

The majority of Cameroon’s 22 million people are French-speaking, while about a fifth are English speakers.

The legacy dates back to 1961, when a formerly British entity, Southern Cameroons, united with Cameroon after its independence from France in 1960.

The anglophone minority has long complained about disparities in the distribution of Cameroon’s oil wealth.

Since November, the anglophone minority has been protesting against perceived discrimination especially in education and the judicial system, where they say the French language and traditions are being imposed on them, even though English is one of the country’s two official languages.

Most anglophone campaigners want the country to resume a federalist system — an approach that followed the 1961 unification but was later scrapped in favour of a centralised government run from the capital Yaounde. A hardline minority is calling for secession.

http://punchng.com/seven-killed-in-cameroon-as-anglophones-declare-independence/

Stop being childish. Just one example of Oodua women ladies who went well ahead of her. Check the link if the quote below whets your appetite.

Associate Clinical Professor, Pediatrics &Newborn Medicine
Company Name Harvard Medical School
Dates Employed Mar 1982 – May 2002 Employment Duration 20 yrs 3 mos
Location Harvard Medical School

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliette-tuakli-md-mph-1aa372a/

Johnnyessence:
congratulations to the Delta state born and fed physician.

The governors of the South-East states have proscribed all the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra.

They called on the leaders of IPOB and all other aggrieved groups to articulate their position on all national issues and submit to the committee of governors, Ohaneze Ndigbo, and the members of the National Assembly from the zone through the Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum.

The governors of the five South-East states took the decision after a five-hour closed-door meeting at the Government House in Enugu, which was attended by the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo John Nwodo, and the General Officer Commanding 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Lt-Gen, Adamu Abubakar.

Among the resolutions during the meeting is an appeal to the President to withdraw the military in the South East at the moment.

Although the governors “reinforced their commitment to one united and indivisible Nigeria”, they restated their call for the restructuring of Nigeria “to achieve justice and fairness to every Nigerian”.

More to follow…

https://www.channelstv.com/2017/09/15/breaking-south-east-governors-ban-ipob-activities/

The attacks didn't start this week or at Oyigbo. Biafrans have long boasted of their 'secret' exploits of killing Northerners on various online forums especially Vanguard comments section. They forget that the internet has a long memory and that the North is not stupid despite Igbo delusions of grandeur and exceptionalism.

Oludon20:
Where IPOB got it wrong was the attack on Hausa people in the East(Oyigbo and Aba),surely Lives were lost in the attacks and the extortion from innocent citizens with their road blocks which are also on tape. I am sure MAYBE IPOB is not violent but every struggle has the tendency of being hijacked by Miscreants and they really spoiled the show for Nnamdi Kanu.............really bad.

Olodo, Spain, a part of the EU you have just appealed to has just said it will arrest 700 Catalan mayors for being pro Catalan referendum.

How does naija's case begin to resemble Libya, Egypt and all those other crazy examples you guys are fond of citing? Do you understand geopolitics at all? Abi you think it is the sight of blood that really moves the world? Do you know what is going on in Yemen? How many times have you heard the West condemn it? Have they even stopped selling arms to Saudi Arabia the aggressor?

If your entire strategy is a hope for western intervention then you are truly lost. Do you think the US didn't know that the Super Tucano planes, for example, will be used below the Niger? Yet they approved. With friends like the West you are friendless my friend and that is why those who really love you tell you to end this NOW before it is to late.

Igboesika:
Patiently waiting for " Nigeria is a sovereign state crew"
even when we all know what happened in Libya, Egypt and the rest.
Stvpid miserable animals.

Indeed the national govt has just asked for the arrest of the 700 Catalan mayors for allowing the referendum push to go ahead but guess IPOB missed that newsflash. EU nation o.

Obi1kenobi:


Don't deceive yourself. Catalans have not constituted a provocative, rabble rousing nuisance. Their fight for secession is far older than your Biafran cause, yet they continue to push their struggle through democratic instruments without resorting to the insolence, hate speech and incitement, and thuggery of IPOB. This is what a Catalan rally looks like:

Alhaji Aliko Dangote is rightly celebrated for giant strides he has made over the last decade in leading a transformation of the Nigerian, and increasingly, the African cement sector. From just a couple of million tons Nigerian production capacity a decade ago, with imports making up the difference, the nation now boasts of around 40m tons of production capacity with what is surplus to current requirements exported. This has reversed the economically crippling waste of foreign exchange hitherto spent on importation of cement. The celebrations however overlook the cost of this overdue industrial revolution to the environment, communities, road infrastructure and the financial bottom line of Dangote Cement Plc (Dancem) itself. The fly in this otherwise fragrant ointment has been the logistical nightmare of moving about 100,000 tons, 2,500 forty ton, 18 wheeler, truckloads of output daily from the Dancem factories to depots, distributors and end users via Nigeria’s woebegone roads. Dancem’s woes extend well beyond this initial approximate numbers however. When we factor in triplication required to ensure trucks are always available to offtake production output and the trucks required to deliver inputs we should be looking at well over 10,000 massive trucks churning up fragile or tarmac free roads, polluting the environment and inevitably causing mayhem all over the country. Yet it need not be so.

Dancem’s two largest factories at Obajana in Kogi state and Ibese in Ogun state are fortuitously located within 40km and 30km respectively of standard gauge rail lines that are scheduled for completion in 2018. In the case of the Ibese factory there is a moribund narrow gauge Ilaro spur, that hooks up to the Lagos – Ibadan rail line at Ifo, which takes rail within 10km of the Dancem factory while Obajana will have to hook up directly to the Warri – Itakpe line.

My proposal is that Dancem takes over from the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) the Ilaro rail spur that has not been operational for over 30 years now. This comes with an established Right of Way (ROW) up to Ilaro which saves a lot of potential community headache though I expect by now Dancem must have positive community engagement down to a fine art. With additional approval to extend the line to its Ibese factory Dancem should be able to rebuild the whole branch as a standard gauge line that will evacuate virtually 100% of its production to Lagos and the rest of Nigeria. Such a line of roughly 30km length will cost about $150m using the approximately $5m / km cost of the Ethiopia-Djibouti rail line which passes through much tougher terrain and is of course a government project. The Obajana line will be a greenfield line entirely and, with approval secured from the FGN, it should set Dancem back no more than $200m for its around 40km length. These look like large amounts of money but Dancem’s desperation to get out from under the unbearable burden of its unwished-for trucking empire has already led it to set up a $100m truck assembly plant in Lagos. Soon it might have to set up a tyre factory too to provide the more 100,000 truck tyres it requires annually at a cost of about half a million naira each. Yet these merely beg the many questions posed by the deployment of more than 10,000 trucks on Nigeria’s notoriously unmotorable roads.

Whether assembled in Nigeria or imported, these 10,000 trucks cost more than $1b to procure, a significant fraction of another billion dollars to run annually, cause havoc to both environment and communities creating massive bad press for the enterprise, are a significant point of leakage from theft of product and parts to entire vehicles disappearing and require way too much executive time to manage. Like the unreliable gas supplies that have now been supplanted to a large extent by using coal for its kilns and power generation, road haulage is also a significant Achilles heel for Dancem production as major roads nationwide keep deteriorating with vital bridges lost every now and then. These are costs and business risks that Dancem does not have to keep bearing if it deploys its significant resources to charting this alternative logistical course.

If we accept that the switch looks good financially how about the commercial impact? Historically Nigeria’s major markets have been established along the rail lines so setting up depots for Dancem and other Dangote products at Mushin, Oyingbo, Yaba, Agege and similar markets along the rail lines can be executed flawlessly. Beyond such ease of distribution, we should factor in also the extension of the market each cement factory can profitably supply. The constraints of road transport meant that each cement factory could not go beyond around 300km radius in distributing its products but the ease, cheapness and speed of rail transport will enable Dancem to extend its reach to every nook and cranny of Nigeria with the addressable markets of its factories overlapping which should enable it optimize production across its various operations.

The not insignificant challenge of securing FGN approval to take over and extend the Ilaro spur and to build an Itapke – Obajana line can easily be overcome in the current political climate where the FGN is eager for rail development, conscious of its own limited resources and eager for private sector participation in all spheres. This might require the tweaking of the current railway laws of Nigeria but I trust Dancem can make the FGN an offer it cannot refuse. On the proposed Ibese – Ifo line I would expect the governments of Ogun and Lagos states to be fully supportive as such a line will open the western axis of Ogun state up to residential developments that can service and decongest Lagos. In addition, instead of the government of Lagos going all the way to Kebbi state in search of food for its burgeoning population, it can simply revive the legendary ‘oko Idogo’ (Idogo train service) that supplied all the major markets of Lagos with fresh produce twice a day for about 60 years up to the 1970s. Planned townships and agricultural layouts can piggy back on the rail line to supply workers and high quality fresh produce for Lagos as in the days of yore.

Lastly, taking over 10,000 diesel burning trucks off the roads must be worth significant carbon credits that I believe Dancem can bank in addition to the company entering the good books of environmentalists and both host and transit communities that have borne the losses in lives, limbs and possessions even as Dancem juggernauts have rolled across Nigeria’s roads daily for almost ten years now. It is time Dancem closed the book on this chapter of its development before communities become radicalized and start posing a potent threat to its operations.

It is my hope that the relentless focus and ambitions of Alhaji Aliko Dangote and his main enterprise, Dancem, will bring about the realization of this dream that will place their operations on a sustainable path financially and otherwise. When he is done with the refinery and has pocketed Arsenal, it is my hope that he will turn his attention to the possibility and potential of a high speed rail system that connects the whole of West Africa, a part of the world that is soon to be host to almost one billion humans and should be the last major global factory. Now that will be an ambition for me to cheer on.

Don't be an id**t. She was a salary earning Shell employee and WASN'T rich before becoming a minister.

raker300:
So?

These people are ridiculous?

Is she not allowed to invest in Nigeria again

She was minister of petroleum for 3 years, check if those properties were built between said period and trace the source of the income.

She was rich before she became minister

Don't come here to blab rubbish

Agreed. Sons of the soil typically don't obtain C of Os even when they redevelop their ancestral homes. Data analysis isn't our strong suit I guess. My parents houses in Lagos and Ogun, including my dad's old house on a street named after him, don't have C of O so how do they get captured in the sort of data Lalong published? On the other hand mine are. Of course Lalong understands the unstated but would happily massage his guests' ego for effect. Trouble is ipob will carry that sound bite for head begin dey form super tribe.

Dumaknesset:


Fact that he signed 70% does not translate to owing 70% of real estate in plateau.

Nnamdi Kanu bombs Jonathan
— 26th June 2017

• Says ex-president should be blamed for problems

From Okey Sampson, Aba

Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has slammed former President Goodluck Jonathan as the harbinger of Nigeria’s problems.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Sun, at the weekend, Kanu described Jonathan as “weak and incompetent” president who did nothing for the South East, even though the region claimed him as one of their own. To Kanu, Jonathan’s wife, Patience, would have been a better president than her husband.

“Jonathan is my uncle, yes. I was one of those who said Jonathan’s tenure was more or less an Igbo presidency; it’s on record I said that. But, he knew I never liked his regime because he was weak and incompetent.

“I don’t support evil; if you do good, I will tell you, if you do bad, I will say it the way it is; I don’t curry favours.

“He was weak, I said I wish it was aunty Patience Jonathan who was in-charge, she would have done better.

“Look at where Jonathan dropped us today; he never finished building the East/West Road, but, he built railway line from Abuja to Kaduna, so they will love him. Who told you that if they did not love Zik, that they will love you?”

Regardless, Kanu said the North has produced good leaders, in all sectors of the economy. The Biafra leader, who said people erroneously see him as hating the North, singled out former Presidents Shehu Shagari and late Umaru Yar’Adua as two good leaders who are from the North and had made their marks in Nigeria.

“People think I hate the North; that’s not true, but the only thing is that I say things the way they are, I don’t know how to tell lies to curry favours. People do not know that I love (former presidents Shagari and Yar’Adua more than I love (former president, Nnamdi Azikiwe) Zik. I’m saying this because when we were young and were growing up, the only notable person that built any notable infrastructure I saw with my two eyes was Shagari. The Enugu/Igwuocha (that the white man named Port Harcourt) Expressway, was built by the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) government of Shagari and then you can travel with joy because it was smooth and very clean.

“Now, tell me who has ever done that since after Shagari, no, tell me. Which other infrastructure will you be proud of, nobody has ever done anything again.”

The IPOB leader described late president Yar’Adua as “a good and perfect gentleman. That was why you had the agitations cooled during the time of Yar’Adua. The man was a gentle man; he knew how to deal with people. I never met both men one on one, but these are good people. I’m not saying we don’t have other good people in the North, no, we have many of them, even in the judiciary, who are nice.

But the few terrible, horrible ones won’t allow them to emerge, that’s the problem.

Reminiscing on the conditions an Abuja High Court put forward before granting him bail, Mazi Kanu said denying him his fundamental human rights to speak and to freely associate when he has not been convicted, speaks volumes about the hopelessness of the Nigerian judiciary.

“Denying me of fundamental human rights which I have as a human being to speak, to talk and to freely associate, when I have not been convicted, speaks volume about the hopelessness of the Nigerian judiciary. That’s how awful it is, how uncivilised it is. How dare you ask somebody not to speak?

Have I been convicted of any crime? Is there presumption of innocence before proven guilty? If I am innocent under bail, why should you prevent me from talking?”

Kanu said he is heading to court to challenge what he described as the stringent conditions the court attached to his release.

He also said he welcomed the quit notice on Igbo in the North by Arewa youths and reiterated his call on the Igbo to return home before they are massacred like their brothers in 1966.

• Full interview on Wednesday.

http://sunnewsonline.com/nnamdi-kanu-bombs-jonathan/

Police Bust Counterfeit Ferrari Factory


Spanish police have arrested three people for allegedly building and selling counterfeit Ferrari sports cars based on Toyota vehicles.

Essentially building them like kit cars, the secret shop would fabricate surprisingly convincing Ferrari bodies out of fiberglass. According to local media outlet La Voz de Galicia, police began investigating the shop after finding a fake Ferrari in Benidorm. They were then able to track down who built the fake Ferrari and discovered the secret workshop. In total, 14 cars were found at the shop, four of which were already for sale while others were in the process of being built. It appears one car has a Peugeot engine lurking under the hood, so not all donor cars appear to be Toyota models. Carscoops reports the cars were being sold online for around $43,000.
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/02/18/police-bust-counterfeit-ferrari-factory/

No wonder it was fight to finish with FRC. Imagine them being made to publish their accounts and the muzzled oxen, sorry pastors, get to see the billions in turnover and profit? God dey see all of us sha.

Pls give me a shout on 08059585300. Where are you located?

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
New International Version (NIV)

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

How Erisco Foods Received Huge Commercial Agric Credit Intervention

By Chika Amanze-Nwachuku and Obinna Chima

Findings have showed that contrary to the recent claim by the Chairman of Erisco Foods Limited, Chief Eric Umeofia, that his firm has not been receiving support from the federal government, the company has got support of about N3 billion from the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) between 2014 and 2016.
Umeofia recently alleged that his company had been frustrated by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Ministry of Trade and Investment and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

But documents seen by THISDAY at the weekend showed that in January 2014, Erisco Foods was given a total of N500 million for the importation and installation of four addition tomato processing lines to the existing three lines it had, as well as for stockpiling of raw materials needs for the operational efficiency of the company. The company received the intervention fund which had a tenor of 32 months through Stanbic IBTC Bank. Also, in May 2014, it received another N400 million which was for working capital, for the purchase of diesel, gas, salaries and local raw material such as sugar, salt, potassium, solvent, cartons and other packaging materials. The fund which the document showed was also disbursed through Stanbic IBTC had a tenor of 30 months. The document also showed thereafter the firm got N300 million.



In the same vein, in December 2014, same Erisco Foods got a total of N800 million which was for the procurement of raw materials- 240,000 metric tonnes/year tomato paste into sachet and cans. The fund given to the firm also had a separate tenor of 36 months. Similarly, in April this year, Erisco Food got another N1 billion to finance the procurement of processing machinery for fresh tomatoes into concentrate. The fund which had 84 months tenor was received by the bank through Keystone Bank Limited.
“The N2 billion facilities given to the company were intended for capital importation, while the extra N1 billion was advanced to the company on the company on the premise that it was going to be used for the purposes of starting primary production through backward integration, using locally produced tomatoes from indigenous farmers.
“As at today, this has not been achieved. Erisco is only importing and packaging tomato paste concentrates into fina, products,” the document also indicated.
Furthermore, the source at one of the Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), through which the CBN disbursed the funds to Erisco and other beneficiaries, disclosed that the company, between June 2014 and April 2016, received various sums for the importation and installation of tomato processing lines and the stockpiling of raw materials for operational efficiency. The source, who alleged that the loans received by Erisco were expected to be repaid within a period ranging from two and a half years to seven years, wondered why the industrialist opted to accuse various government agencies when indeed his company had benefitted immensely from interventions of government and funding from the banks.

Furthermore, the source alleged that the company might not have kept to existing rules of engagement by importing tomato paste and repacking the item instead of boosting local tomato paste production in line with the aspirations of government.

“When contacted, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said the central bank does not allocate forex anymore.
“By practice, we do not join issues with individuals on matters of this nature. All I can tell you is that the CBN does not allocate foreign exchange. All business persons, manufacturers, traders, among others are expected to approach their respective banks to bid for and obtain foreign exchange. Whether they succeed or not is their business. No amount of blackmail through paid advertorial or sponsored reports could make the CBN change its policy.”
Okorafor therefore urged those seeking to purchase foreign exchange to follow the due process instead of deploying blackmail and other unethical schemes in their ploy to win public empathy.
Umeofia who had criticised the central bank and other government agencies for not supporting his business, had blamed government for lack of clear policies towards manufacturing, high interest rates and mass importation of products such as tomato paste which his company produces in Nigeria.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/10/10/how-erisco-foods-received-huge-commercial-agric-credit-intervention/

Our press are not helping matters. Why can't they explain that VIP means ventilated Improved Pit toilet which is essentially a refined pit latrine that the WHO introduced around 1980 into the developing world to help deal with hygiene in slum areas? That makes the question of how pit toilets managed to cost 10s of millions per school more cogent. A lot of private schools were started with standard features with much less than these pit latrines cost per school.

No wonder the Niger Delta Avengers want to start bombing Lagos. Massive bad belle.

Sun newspaper says they sold Army land. I saw this at the Yaba barracks and was just shaking my head. Duplexes sold to civilians for N45m. I couldn't understand how civilians could become landlords in Army barracks in any country but some believed the country would continue in its clueless state for ever and put their money in. In a similar way people are currently buying houses built right inside Yaba Tech staff quarters. One day a Pharaoh that didn't know Joseph will arise in that sector too.

http://sunnewsonline.com/army-court-martials-2-major-generals-over-illegal-land-sale/

What is the price and where can I come to see the demo? Pls email biodunid@gmail.com. Thanks.

saliubello:
Non complex mechanism.
Easy to couple.
Easy to operate.
Detachable after operation.
Moveable

Pls send your raingun price to biodunid@gmail.com. Thanks.

Three years ago it was Greensprings that a diesel tanker rammed into and spilled its content. They had to evacuate the school. Having those two schools in that down Anthony slope is a disaster waiting to happen but as Nigerians we would rather pray and fast instead of simply doing the needful.

Of course Buhari wasn't in charge three years ago o wailer

PoliticalThuG:
This is normal thing ever since bullari became our president.

No just dey form Rambo here o. Have you stood up to ordinary LASTMA, KAI or Yellow fever before? Social media courage dey very cheap.

NaWetinDey:
I think there are organisations that take care of child abuse casses, women's rights and human rights? They should be all over Lagos and I think they buy peoples' cases if they find them compelling and true enough.

What's making these teachers terrorize these children these days? From sexual assaults to outright brutalizing of children; are they owed 10 years salary or what?

Your husaband/wife/son gotta be an army general in the US Army for you to be entirely free from my counter-attack if you do that to my own. Even being an arm carrier may not really save you from my will to prove you wrong.

Not a Victimless Crime
(Tithes and Offerings: Then and Now)

In the Old Testament we have a rich collection of verses and entire chapters devoted to directing us on not just the need to give Tithes and Offerings but the nitty gritty details and processes for accomplishing same in a Godly and orderly manner. In that time and in the socioeconomic structure of ancient Israel, Tithes, Offerings and other sacrificial injunctions, such as the seven and 50 yearly years of Sabbath and Jubilee respectively, played a critical role in maintaining socioeconomic harmony and ensuring that Israel wasn’t ossified into a society of haves and have-nots.

Good as God’s purpose was, His prophets often had to rail extensively against the failure of famously hard hearted Israelites to faithfully comply with the extensively reiterated and explicated rules on giving of our substance and forgiving debts owed to us. This they had to do not because there was drought or hunger in heaven but because the Levites had no stake, land, in Israel while the poor, widows, orphans, strangers etc, were always with them and these needed to be taken care of if a permanent underclass, a lower caste among God’s people, wasn’t to be established.

As it was in the time of Moses and the prophets so it was in the time of Jesus and the Apostles and so it is today. God has never needed to live in houses we build nor has He needed to eat food we provide. As Jesus made abundantly clear in Matthew 25:31-46 and in other parables and sermons; God can only be served by serving man. God is only fed, clothed, housed, cared for etc when we do these to our fellow men for we cannot claim to love God that we do not see when we fail to love his creatures that He has surrounded us with. It is thus devilishly disingenuous when we strive to separate ‘giving to God’ from the ways, means and purposes that were established consistently in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

How can we today pretend to be Bible believing and understanding Christians when we say it doesn’t matter what is done with the Tithes and Offerings we are constantly exhorted and extorted by ‘men of God’ to pay? How can we turn our eyes away from the jets and mansions procured by these copious flows of divinely provided substance entrusted to our care when the poor continue to abound not just in our societies but in the very pews next to us and in our homes? How can we divorce the purpose of these divine injunctions from the current practice yet deceive ourselves that we are carrying out God’s will and purpose on earth? Can God be pleased that some ‘men of God’ appropriate the vast majority of His material blessings provided through the laity while the average ‘Levite’ who has little stake among us, the widows, orphans, strangers within our gates and the poor all over remain unprovided for?

Matthew 25 and every other relevant chapter of the Bible, Old and New Testament, did not stipulate the Temple or the Priest as the sole places and persons through whom we can give to God (his people). As is all too common among men, some have inserted themselves into the space between us and God and turned themselves into the exclusive conduits though which we can give to God. I have actually watched a Nigerian televangelist, supposedly ‘radical’ and ‘progressive’, teach his congregation not to give to fellow parishioners and even family members while of course exerting themselves strenuously to prove their love to God by giving all to the (his) church!

How did we come to such a sorry pass in these last days when knowledge truly abounds? How did a small group of men and women deceive us all to practice our Christianity in ways so fundamentally different from what the Bible very clearly describes? How do we reconcile Paul’s collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem with the harsh abandonment of the saints in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and every other part of Nigeria even while pastoral jets and miles long ‘houses of God’ continue to proliferate? If most ‘men of God’ have turned their stomachs to their God must the ‘well educated’ Nigerian Christians prove themselves so ignorant of the Bible they claim to have read as to so inexcusably live their lives by rules so totally at variance with what God teaches us through the same book and our consciences?

When and where in the Bible did Jesus or any Apostle ask that Offerings should be for a new building or a new chariot for the ‘man of God’ instead of the constant refrain of providing for the needy? What was the outcome of Solomon’s strenuous and taxing, pun intended, efforts to build a house for God? Wasn’t the pain inflicted on the people the main plank for Jeroboam’s rebellion? Was the rich young ruler in Mark 10 told to disperse his wealth through any temple or any priest? Did Matthew 25 say we would perform any of the benchmark acts of piety through the temple or the priest? Was Jesus wrong when he preferred the Samaritan who cared for the robbery victim to the priest and the Levite who chose to go about their ‘godly’ business instead? Why, like the Galatians, have we become so thoughtless that we ignore God’s stipulations while holding fast to the prescriptions of mere men yet hope to please Him?

If a church and its pastor choose not to use God’s blessings to lift the heads of orphans, widows and poor saints but instead heap up ever grander whited sepulchers called churches to their own vainglory in the name of serving God, then heaven minded Christians must jealously guard and disperse the treasure God has entrusted to them in Godly and biblical ways. We shall have no excuse on the Day of Judgment if we are counted as goats and not sheep despite giving multi billions to sundry church projects while on earth. Each of us must work out his own salvation with fear and trembling if these false prophets are not to make merchandise of us to our eternal damnation. This is not a victimless crime for God gave each of us talents and resources as mere trustees tasked with lifting the heads of the less blessed and we shall be held to account on what use we put them to while on this side of eternity. Shirking our responsibilities as trustees or cavalierly discharging them can be no less a sin than frittering away both talent and treasure on the most heinous profligacy.

Abraham Abiodun Ayodeji Idowu
March 20th 2016

Oyeyemi read History at Ife and seemed to be socially conscious back then but since he moved to the US the most charitable appellation one could use for him is 'confused'. I hope it isn't worse than mere confusion.

fyneguy:
Trash!

Professor Adewole was Baba Akande's nominee with the backing of Tinubu. Tinubu also nominated the SGF Babachir Lawal. He has the FIRS Chairman - Tunde Fowler. Abike Dabiri and the former deputy gov are his loyalists, among others. Only a fool will take this piece seriously!

I lost 73 acres more than a decade after paying for it in Ilaro which just happens to be my home town. What do I blame that one? Igbos and others obviously don't lose land in Igboland.

wtfCode:
I almost cried after reading this.
God bless ur igboness(hustle).
I just wish we could just bring all our investments home.
Same sh*t happened to my uncle in the north. Them lazy and wicked hausas claimed his properties and almost killed him.
As for the yorubas,they're known with this kinda act. Very lazy tribe.
#proudly_igbo.
#still gonna keep the blood flowing!

Price?

How much did he pay the families of the over 100 who died in his building collapse caused, the government says, by his cutting corners? He should go and start his charity from his church.

How many PIB versions were bandied about during the 7th Senate?